Earlier, Stephen Green reported on OPEC+ slashing its oil output by two million barrels. This after, as Stephen put it, Joe Biden went to OPEC+ with “hat in hand” (and a gas can in the other) to ask for more oil. Request denied. And gas prices will probably go up. But don’t worry! The (P)Resident of the United States has a plan! It’s all good! We’ll just… dip into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve! Again.
Fox News reports that Biden plans to release 10 million barrels from the reserve. And that is on top of the 180 million barrel release that was supposed to end by October 31. In addition to the SPR releases, Biden is renewing his call for U.S. energy companies to lower gas prices. Except that it costs money to extract, refine, and transport that stuff to your local filling station. With increasing costs and a dwindling supply, the companies are being railroaded into hiking prices and becoming scapegoats for our audio-animatronic president.
If only there was more oil, somewhere. Anywhere. Oil that we could just take right out of the ground, right here in the United States. If only.
Here are some numbers from the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining. Keep in mind, these are just for Utah and do not reflect the available resources in the rest of the country. In 2018, wells Utah and Uinta Wyoming produced 37,116,941 barrels of oil. By 2022, that number had dropped to 20,748,304. That is a loss of 16,368,637 barrels. In 2018, natural gas production was at 295,825,783 mcf (thousand per cubic foot). By 2022, that number was at 126,130,632, a dip of 169,695,151 mcf. Again, those numbers are for just one state. As I have said before, I have been to places in Utah where these resources were seeping out of the ground on their own.
Wells do play out. There is not an infinite supply of oil and gas; that much is true, but there is still plenty of energy out there to be harvested. But the party and lobbyists that support the man who is draining the SPR and who crawled away humiliated from OPEC+ want to do everything possible to keep us from accessing our own resources.
Funny, isn’t it? You never hear U.S. progressives lowering the carbon boom on China or other nations, for that matter. I supposed it is only U.S. oil that pollutes the environment. Or could it be that there are progressive coffers to be filled and promises to be kept? Wait, I forgot. It’s Putin’s fault. My bad.
In any event, I’ll see you in line at the pump. If you need help pushing your car to the gas station, maybe you can call the White House.
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